Finished one of my Minis

Spoiler Alert! If you're in my Quilting Friends group, you shouldn't read this post until Sunday 12/13. In fact, if you've read this far, it may be too late. Sorry.





I'm totally finished with the Thou Shalt Not Steal Pecans quilt. My right thumb looks a little like hamburger meat. I was trying to hurry my hand quilting yesterday and I kept poking myself. It was truly difficult to continue to work on it today. Thankfully, I had very little quilting left. Then all I had to do was put the binding, label and the hanging sleeve on. And it only took me until 11:30 PM to do it all.



I have to admit that I love this quilt. I don't know if anyone else really does, but I really do. This is my second totally original quilt. Black Cat was the first. Black Cat was donated to my quilt guild's live miniature auction last year. Pecans will be given as a gift in our Quilting Friends Christmas party. It's going to be difficult to give up Pecans. I'll miss it.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 24

First I want to thank the people who left lovely comments for me on yesterday's post! I love comments and they were all so nice. Thank you. You all gave me the courage to try to draw again today.





Looking back at my little wren from yesterday, I decided that I really like it. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll like my cardinal just as much. I probably should try to paint him and see if that helps any. I didn't show my husband either drawings until tonight. He could at least identify the cardinal. He thought the wren was a chickadee. Oh well, he doesn't know most birds from chickens, but he can at least tell that a bird is a bird.





Earlier today, I went to Happiness is Quilting in McKinney TX. I had to go up to Dallas to get an allergy shot so I figured I might as well have a little fun too. So, I went to the quilt shop to get more size 8 perle cotton embroidery thread. That's what I prefer to use on my quote quilts. I had some DMC thread, but I wanted a particular color of Presencia. It's the lighter blue in the photo of threads. Kind of a turquoise blue or maybe a Robin's egg blue. Whatever color it is, I love it! I had several skeins of the 6 strand embroidery floss, but none of the perle cotton. It was hard to choose which quilt shop to go to. I've been wanting to go to my favorite quilt shop, Quilt Country in Lewisville, but I couldn't remember if they carried Presencia thread. I headed to McKinney because I knew they did. I also got some iron on transfers for dish towels and some plain dish towels to embroider. I've really enjoyed the embroidery lately. Although I'm not letting myself start on these yet.



I have a mini to make for a Christmas exchange in a couple of weeks. I want to make another quote quilt for that, but I can't decide on a funny quote. Have you got any ideas? After the party and mini exchange, I'll be working on a gift that I'm extremely behind on. It's a memory quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister and her husband. They're second child passed away after only a couple of days of life. I've been working on a quilt for them from his clothing for some time. It's been an off and on project because it's been difficult for me to work on. The time has come to finish it though. His parents really need it.

Then I can get back to and finish any of the quilts I've started and not finished during this month. It's all going to be fun and I'm looking forward to almost all of it. Thanks for coming along with me.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 20

I did a little something different today for my art. I took a break from it. I went to a movie, at the theater. Haven't been in ages. This does not mean that I won't work on something later, but for now, I just let my mind go and experienced something through someone else. Kind of an artist's date, with my husband.

I went to see The Blind Side. I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this movie! It was funny. It was heartwarming. It made me want to meet the people it was based on because it was indeed based on real people and a true story. It made me want to be a better person. I can't remember the last movie that made me feel that! I puddled up a time or two, but I don't think everyone would. Even though my hubby classified it as a "chick flick" he liked it too. I found great pleasure in that fact and since he laughed many times out loud, he could not deny that he liked it.

After the movie, we went to the grocery store together. I hate to grocery shop, but it's much more enjoyable with a companion. I tried to get the things we would need through Thanksgiving. I truly hate to shop with huge crowds. I got my fill of that during our military days when the commissary was always packed. Anyway, one of the things I got was low fat crunchy peanut butter. I prefer the lower fat to the regular and we were out of crunchy. I splurged on croissants too. When I got home, I decided to make a peanut butter sandwich on a croissant. I thought it was great and a bit artful. My hubby thought I was slightly insane.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to Dallas to Quilter's Connection for a miniature class. It's more of a sit and sew that costs us $10 a month. We've been together forever and basically work on our own projects now. I'll take both of my quilts that I've shown you all recently. If I'm lucky enough to finish "Happy", I'll start quilting on the pecan quilt. I'll show photos when I return.

Later: I've been looking through bags of fabric and projects for things to take with me tomorrow. I found 5 completed miniature pineapple blocks. I remember that I did not have enough of the fabric to use the primary fabric in the other 4 blocks I wanted to make. I have fabric that I could use for whole cloth blocks or maybe I could do something else. Regardless, I'm excited about that project again. It's going with me and you'll be seeing it soon.

Miniature Quilt Update

I really haven't been sewing or quilting much lately. Seems like years since I've done either on a daily basis and today, I realized that I kind of miss it. I went into Dallas for a miniature quilt "class". It's really more of a "sit and sew" session with ladies who have grown to be good friends. When I joined the group, we were about to embark on the Dear Jane quilt, making blocks each month when we got together. I've started it and only made one or two blocks so far. I keep changing my mind on the color scheme for the quilt. Should it be Christmas colors? I've always wanted a Christmas quilt. Or maybe 30's reproductions or Civil war reproductions (the original was made during the Civil war) or maybe I should do it with batiks. Ugh! I started it in Christmas fabrics and now may change to batiks or I may ditch the project all together. I could always turn the blocks I've made into a mini for the Quilter's Guild of Dallas Quilt Celebration miniature auction in March. Whatever I do, I'll post photos of it. Anyway, I finally drifted on to work on other projects during that time.

This month, I worked on my Stormy Weather pineapple mini. I'm hand quilting it. Since I've only quilted during those classes for the last two months, I have no idea how long it will end up taking me to complete. When I do, I'll post a photo. Come to think of it, if I actually sew this weekend, I'll post a photo of that too.